The Sundrop is Lorien’s newest writing project, a novella-length fantasy written between late September and mid-November of 2025.
A grad student drifting aimlessly through his studies, Emory Olguin is plagued by an emptiness that only grows worse as the specter of starting a life and a career approaches. One night, at a party on campus, he is whisked away to a fantastic land of wild forest and crumbling towers, kidnapped by a gaunt figure who binds him to a thousand years of service to the fairies. Desperate to escape, to resume the shell of a life he’s just lost, Emory finds an unexpected ally in Bryony, a fairy woman with a grudge of her own, who offers her help in loosening the bond that traps him. When he discovers a potential shortcut to freedom, though—a magical item known as the Sundrop—Emory must confront the deep cost of using its power, a cost that may be greater than he understands. At once a vivid and mysterious interpretation of fairy folklore and the wild landscape of the fairy otherworld, and a melancholy exploration of gender and the trans experience, The Sundrop is a fantastic fable of identity, transformation, and the terribly heavy weight of deciding just how we want to show up in the world.
